Chinese Tesla Rival Xpeng to Raise Nearly $2 billion with Hong Kong IPO

Xpeng Motors’ recently released Navigation Guided Pilot (NGP) beta has begun rolling out in the form of a limited public beta.

China-based Xpeng Motors was called one of Tesla’s best rivals for global market share by JP Morgan, and according to a new update, the company has announced major offerings into its growing electric vehicle (EV) business.

On Thursday, Xpeng Motors said it plans to offer 85 million Class A shares of the company, which will be split between an 80.75 million share offering and a Hong Kong offering of about 4.25 million shares, according to MarketWatch.

Xpeng gained approval from Hong Kong regulators this week, according to the Wall Street Journal. The company is already listed on the NYSE and is trading at $40 per share. The dual primary listing for Xpeng means it would be subject to regulators in both Hong Kong and the U.S.

The global offering is being underwritten by BofA Securities and JP Morgan, and the company will use the proceeds to invest in its proprietary Xpilot and Xmart systems, to produce upgraded hardware and future models, and to expand its store presence, among other goals. Xpeng’s listing may raise between $1 to 2 billion USD, says CNBC.

Despite growing sales numbers, Xpeng and other China-based automakers slumped in May, due to a shortage of electronics semiconductor chips.

Last year, Tesla CEO Elon Musk shared that Xpeng had stolen Autopilot source code from the U.S. company, which was settled in court with the ex-employee who had stolen the code as of April this year.

Earlier this year, Xpeng received a $76 million investment from the Chinese government, not long before the same government’s military banned the use of Teslas for personnel, due to concerns with in-cabin footage privacy. Tesla has since opened a local data storage site in China for securely saving user data.